RIYADH: Saudi Arabia‘s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday urged all nations to cease weapon exports to Israel, according to Al Arabiya Post. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Price made this request during an extraordinary BRICS Joint Meeting, which was being held virtually to address the Israel-Hamas conflict.
South Africa is hosting the BRICS groups of nations to convene the virtual BRICS Extraordinary Joint Meeting. Saudi Arabia further demanded the start of a serious and comprehensive peace process to establish a Palestinian state along the borders of 1967, reported Al Arabiya Post.
“The Kingdom’s position is constant and firm; there is no way to achieve security and stability in Palestine except through the implementation of international decisions related to the two-state solution,” he stressed.
The Saudi Crown Prince restated the country’s rejection of Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip and demanded an immediate halt to them. Additionally, he said that the “brutal crimes” unfolding in Gaza demand a collective effort to bring them to an end, Al Arabiya Post reported. At the meeting, the Crown Prince reiterated Saudi Arabia’s rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and called for collective efforts to stop the deterioration of the humanitarian conditions in the enclave. Since the beginning of the war, Saudi Arabia has made tireless efforts to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip, he added.
The BRICS extraordinary meeting was hosted by the BRICS chair South Africa who accused Israel of war crimes and “genocide” in the Palestinian territory. The BRICS group of nations in a joint statement also called for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza. The leaders of the BRICS countries–Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa– joined the virtual meeting along with their counterparts from newly added member states. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also participated in the virtual meeting. The Israel-Hamas war escalated after the Hamas terror group killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during cross-border raids on October 7, marking the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
However, Israel retaliated by launching a bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza. According to Gaza authorities, the war has killed more than 13,300 people, thousands of them children.